m ignorance rather than from
depravity have sprung the most appalling crimes, the most pernicious
vices. In darkness of mind men have worshiped senseless material
things, have deified every cruel and carnal passion; at the dictate of
unenlightened conscience they have oppressed, laid waste, and murdered;
for lack of knowledge they have perished in the snows of winter, been
wasted by miasmatic air, have fallen victims to famine and pestilence,
and have bowed for centuries beneath the degrading yoke of tyranny.
Science is a ministering angel. The Jesuits by bringing quinine to the
knowledge of civilized man have done more to relieve suffering than all
the builders of hospitals. Vaccine has wrought more potently than the
all-forgetful love of mothers; more than all the patriots gunpowder has
won victories over tyrants; and the printing-press is a greater teacher
than philosophers, writers, poets, schools, and universities. Like a
heavenly messenger the compass guides man whithersoever he will go,
still turning to the one fixed point, as turn the hearts of the children
of men to God. The nations intermingle and lose their jealousies and
hatreds, borne everywhere by the power of steam; and the thoughts of men
are carried by lightning round the whole earth. Commerce has become a
world-wide interchange of good offices; and while it adds to the comfort
of all, it enlarges thought and strengthens sympathy. Our greater
knowledge has enabled us to lengthen human life; to extinguish some of
the most virulent diseases; to perform surgical operations without pain;
to increase the fertility of the soil; to make pestilential regions
habitable; to illumine our cities and homes at night with the
brilliancy of day; to give to laborers better clothing and dwellings
than princes in other ages have had. It has opened to our vision the
limitless sidereal expanse, and revealed to us a heavenly glory which
transcends the imagination of inspired poets. Before this new light the
earth has dwindled away and become an atom, as the stars hide when the
great sun wheels upward from out the night. We have looked into the very
heart of the sun itself, and know of what it is made; and with the
microscope we have caught sight of the marvelous world of the
infinitesimally small, have seen what human eye had never beheld, and
have watched unseen life building up and breaking down all living
organisms. We have learned how to walk secure in the depths of ocean,